Herbert Winful receives University Diversity and Social Transformation Professorship

Herbert Winful, the Joseph E. and Anne P. Rowe Professor of Electrical Engineering and Arthur F. Thurnau Professor, has received a University Diversity and Social Transformation Professorship for his work promoting inclusion for all.

Winful, one of U-M’s most ardent champions of diversity, equity and inclusion, has worked tirelessly to build inclusive communities and support individuals in science, technology, engineering and mathematics since joining the faculty in 1987.

He has received numerous accolades, including U-M’s Harold R. Johnson Diversity Service Award, the College of Engineering Raymond J. and Monica E. Schultz Outreach and Diversity Award, a 2021 MLK Spirit Award from the College of Engineering, and a State of Michigan Teaching Award.

As director of education and outreach for U-M’s National Science Foundation Center for Ultrafast Optical Science, he provided STEM enrichment activities for pre-college minority students. In electrical and computer engineering, he established the Committee for an Inclusive Department and the annual Willie Hobbs Moore Distinguished Alumni Lecture named in honor of the first African American woman to earn electrical engineering degrees from U-M.

He leads the MI-Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation, a higher education partnership that seeks to increase the number of minority graduates in STEM fields. He has fostered scientific exchanges with Africa, helped establish a doctoral program in optics at Ghana’s University of Cape Coast and contributed to rebuilding engineering education in Liberia after its civil war.

As a researcher, Winful has made fundamental contributions in many areas, including nonlinear fiber optics, nonlinear optics in periodic structures, the nonlinear dynamics of laser arrays, the propagation of single-cycle pulses, and the physics of quantum tunneling. He received the IEEE Photonics Society Quantum Electronics Award, and is a Fellow of the Optical Society of America, the American Physical Society, and Life Fellow of IEEE.

Winful is also the Joseph E. and Anne P. Rowe Professor of Electrical Engineering, Arthur F. Thurnau Professor, and a professor of physics.

Winful will be recognized publicly October 18 at a special dinner and ceremony, along with other faculty award recipients in the areas of teaching, mentoring, service, and scholarship.